"I have some background in education (teacher, school board member) and my wife is retiring this year after 35 years as an elementary teacher. We've seen huge changes.

"While far too many administrators are simply clueless about management, the biggest change has undoubtedly been the lack of student motivation coupled with (maybe because of) lack of parental will to work with and motivate their children. Every teacher I talk with bemoans that lack of parental support. Parents are quick to criticize, but are absent when it counts.

"The last thing to consider is that when comparing US to other countries, we use statistics for every child in the country; many other countries don't. Children who drop out are not counted in all countries' statistics. As in all comparisons, it pays to dive beneath the well-publicized generalities."

Jim Van de Wetering [jvan@blairmartin.com] also discusses the problems of "Asymmetric Motivation":

"You are so right about short term profit requirements of Wall Street. This point is so obvious but Wall Street is not there for the betterment of the nation as a whole but to line the pockets of the few.

"The redistribution of wealth among fewer and fewer Americans is not smart in the long term because the wider the gap between the haves and the have-nots, the closer you come to becoming a second-rate society.

"When you squeeze out the middle class all you have is a Third World Nation. The removal of the middle class is a security breach for the wealthiest Americans. They need to maintain the middle class as their safety buffer, if for no other reason.

"The solution to this will not come from politicians but true statesmen. Where do you find one of those these days? The silent majority needs to stop being silent.

Mike Hakes [Hakes.Mike@colteng.com] discusses the problem of Earth's resources going too fast:

"Beyond global warming, we must take into account natural catastrophes and diseases that will also deplete human populations.

"Already in our 20th to 21st century cultures we've flattened most of the Population growths throughout Europe; American birth rates are down; China will have an excess of 70MM men in a short while, plus all the pollutants and the 'other known causes' including cigarette smoking will start to show an effect.

"One of the reasons China and many other countries are in their situation is that they are working to create industry without conservancy. In the 1990s we were spending close to 1 penny on every dollar of profit to clean or service the 'conservancy stream' (which literally means keeping bad materials out of the waste stream and out of land fills.

"If you want an example of waste streams, look at the NE quadrant of N. America (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, etc.) and answer two questions:

How many people lived here in 1980?
How many people lived here in 2005?

"Not many people know that New York City almost drained a complete lake which had been it's water reservoir. China is currently rerouting rivers to major metros like Beijing.

"If over 95% of the peoples of the world living in cities, who will be servicing and protecting the areas that will provide the food, water and fuels? In the end that's what it will become, an 'allocation' stream.

"If we start now and divest ourselves of both wasted resources (moving into a path for conservancy) and nonrenewable resources, then we'll have a different path for the whole world.

"My comment to everyone who reads this: There is too much beauty in our world, to not care; there is too rich a story from our world to not nourish and build in this conservancy direction, for the children, as our legacy to the future."